A Better,

Safer
Railway

Stepping Up
SPAD FOCUS
Guidance

IT’S BACK TO BUSINESS

BE PREPARED
STAY ALERT

SPAD Risk Subgroup

IT HAS BEEN A TOUGH YEAR FOR EVERYONE
The railway has been a very different place over the last year, and as we move out of the
Covid pandemic, many things may not be returning to normal. This will pose risks for drivers
on all parts of the network. Humans are creatures of habit, and as a driver it’s likely that
your training and experience have encouraged this – but things are about to change and this
guidance highlights potential risks and strategies to help manage these.

• Stopping patterns, train formations, expected signalling sequences, train schedules, and timetables
may all be different.
• Your work patterns over the last year will have been different. It’s proven that thinking tasks such as
route knowledge and sticking to rules are more prone to skills fade.
• Normal concentration tasks have not been as regular usual. A large proportion of SPADs occur during
the first and last 5 miles of a journey.
• We have all had plenty of distractions in recent times. Between 50 - 75% of all SPADs have been
influenced by distraction, whether it’s something on your mind inside or outside of work, or maybe
some long-awaited holidays around the corner.
• 2020-21 has left many of us isolated, feeling burnt out or stressed. This can impact on short-term
memory capacity, the ability to concentrate, and your decision-making skills. The return to more
normal train services will increase workloads and distractions.
• Remember, it’s OK not to be OK. Anxiety is not a weakness. Tell someone and seek help from your line
manager before it impacts on your role.

While this guidance and the associated posters refer to SPADs, the topics raised here can equally apply
to other operational incidents such as station overruns, fails to call or wrong routes being taken.

2 RSSB l STEPPING UP: SPAD FOCUS GUIDANCE

All change please - Kick the habit

It doesn’t take long to build a habit, research has shown this can take as little as 18 days1, and we’ve
all been operating in a different way for much longer than this. Habits then impact on our behaviours
at work. With the return to service, the operating railways is about to change, so now is a good time to
think about what habits you may have built up. These habits could include scenarios you’ve got used to
in the past few months like:

• stopping patterns
• stock formations
• signal sequences
• route features such as vegetation.

When we return to a busier service it can be easy to make assumptions about what we’ll see, and what
we’re driving, but this can easily create a SPAD trap.

So, what can I do?

Breaking a habit is all about being aware of your own state of mind while at work. Before you start your
journey, think about where you have formed habits. These are likely to be in locations where you can
unintendedly switch into ‘autopilot’, areas where there are less obvious risks. Research has shown that
SPADs are less commons at signals you expect to be red and happen more often at signals that are
normally clear. These are the ones that catch drivers out. To manage this you can use NTS strategies
such as Risk Triggered Commentary to help maintain your situational awareness and stop you falling
into autopilot, when you feel you are at risk of falling into previous habits.

In terms of changes to stopping patterns, you can use strategies such as making time for extra checks
so you don’t get caught out, such as double checking your schedule card, or making up your schedule
card with an obvious sign to remind you about an unusual or different stop to the ones you have been
making recently. You can find other NTS ideas on our website.

You can also find out more about how to manage SPAD’s at times of change here:
https://www.rssb.co.uk/what-we-do/Key-Industry-Topics/SPAD-Good-Practice-Guide/Managing-
Operational-and-Engineering-Change/Managing-SPADs-during-operational-and-engineering-
change

1. How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. 2009. Lally et al.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.674

3 RSSB l STEPPING UP: SPAD FOCUS GUIDANCE

If you don’t use it, you lose it

Practice makes perfect

Some of us will have used our driving skills less recently. If you don’t carry out a task frequently then it
can become difficult to remember or use and this is termed ‘skills fade’. How well trained and practised
these tasks are and how frequently we use them will all affect how quickly they fade. In general, ‘thinking’
tasks (such as your route or rules knowledge) are more prone to skills fade than physical tasks (such as the
physical actions of driving a train).
Also, ‘thinking’ skills that you also use less frequently, such as Emergency Special Working emergency
procedures, are at even higher risk of skills fade’. The danger with skills fade is whether you can recall the
skill or knowledge efficiently and effectively when you need to. Now is a good time to reflect on your range
of skills and knowledge and think about whether any of these could have faded. Do you need to get help to
refresh them before you are back in the cab?

So, what can I do?

Interventions here are all about you reflecting honestly on which skills you may need to refresh, then asking
for help or support from your line manager. Remember you are not a railway robot and it is natural to
forget things, especially when we have all been in a state of stress for a long period of time. So it is OK to
ask for help. This help may include:
• consider the need for refresher training before you return
• discuss with your manager if you feel a lack of confidence in some skills
• discussing certain scenarios, skills or rules with a colleague.

It’s better to ask for help before you need it. If you want to know more about skills fade, you can look here:
• RED 48, 1 minute 30 seconds in: https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/learning-from-
experience/red-programmes/red-48-clear-communication
• Right Track – Issue 21, pages 3-5: https://www.rssb.co.uk/-/media/Project/RSSB/RssbWebsite/
Documents/Affiliate/Affiliate-content/Improving-Safety-and-Health/right-track-issue-21.pdf

Beware the first and final 5 - SPAD’s matter, start to finish

All parts of a driver’s turn are not equal when it comes to SPADs. Research found that over 50% of SPADs
occur in first or last 5 miles of a journey (or the first and last 10% of the journey depending on which
research you reference). Either way, the start and end of your journey is particularly vulnerable to this risk.
At the start of the journey this could be due to factors such as rushing to start work if you’ve been delayed
or a break cut short, still thinking about distracting thoughts from your break or home, busy platforms
or infrastructure or annoyance from a handover. At the end of your journey again this can be due to
distractions of passengers on the platform, busier infrastructure, or thinking about your next turn, what you
need to do at home or interesting activities after work. Whatever the reason, you need to be particularly
alert and focussed on the task at the beginning and end of your journey.

4 RSSB l STEPPING UP: SPAD FOCUS GUIDANCE

So, what can I do?
This is all about using NTS such as maintaining concentration, managing distractions, using a systematic
approach to checking or managing workload. So any NTS training you’ve had may have helped you to
develop some skills you could use here. This may include strategies such as:
• using tools to maintain concentration at the start and finish of each journey
• use of NTS tools such as Short Journey
• concept to help maintain focus
• using Risk Triggered Commentary to help maintain focus and manage risks
• being aware of potential internal and external distractions and have a plan to manage these.

You can find out more here:

https://www.rssb.co.uk/what-we-do/key-industry-topics/Data-Insights/SPAD-Data-Insights

Trains are more likely to SPAD

towards the start or the end
of their journey.

Count of SPAD incidents by percentage into journey (2017-2019)

50

40
Number of SPADs

30

20

10

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Distance into journey

5 RSSB l STEPPING UP: SPAD FOCUS GUIDANCE

Stressed out? Burned out? It’s been a tough year for everyone

2020 and (so far) 2021 have been years like no others. The stress has been different for each of us (home-
schooling, caring responsibilities, sickness, loneliness, loss of family or friends, high workload, increased
anxiety) and we each have different tolerances and abilities to cope with stress. Stress has been shown
to impact on the skills we need to drive safely, such as our short-term memory capacity, the ability to
concentrate and to make good decisions. The return to service (and for some a return to the driving cab
after a period of absence) will bring an increased workload with the distractions of more passengers and
services. You will need to consider how stress may have affected you, or is still affecting you.

So, what can I do?

It is hard to look at someone and know how stressed they are. So, it is important that you honestly reflect
on this yourself and if you feel that some aspect of your role is at risk due to stress, that you discuss this
with someone. We are not robots and it’s OK not to be OK, but you do need to tell someone and get some
help. This may be someone at work (your line manager or a colleague you trust) or you can look outside
your organisation and get in touch with your Employee Assistance Programme if you feel like you are
reaching the limit of your ability to cope. You can also consider some NTS strategies to help you cope with
specific scenarios or operational contexts that you find stressful.

You can find out more:

• Cutting SPAD risk from home: https://www.rssb.co.uk/what-we-do/key-industry-topics/spad-good-
practice-guide/how-drivers-can-manage-spad-risk/cut-your-spad-risk-from-home
• RED 52: mental health: https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/learning-from-experience/red-
programmes/red-52-mental-health

6 RSSB l STEPPING UP: SPAD FOCUS GUIDANCE

What was my last signal? Inside Out

Given the nature of the driving task, distractions are always a potential risk. This can be because you are
in a period of low workload (cognitive underload) — so it is easier to become distracted by thoughts or by
what’s outside (or inside) your cab. Or it may be that there is something new or interesting on the lineside
which takes your attention and distracts you from the driving task.
Research has shown that between 50 - 75% of SPADs have distraction as a cause and as we return to
service, new distractions may be more prevalent. These can be internal — thinking about stress caused
by the pandemic, bereavements, or a feeling of low morale. Or they can be external, such as increased
passenger numbers, different services, new stock, or platform changes.

So, what can I do?

The opposite of being distracted is being able to maintain focus and concentration in the moment and on
the task. This needs you to be aware of what being distracted feels like (drifting gaze, paying attention to
non-work thoughts in your head) or what can trigger being distracted such as being in low workload. You
need to have distraction plans ready in your head to manage these, which could include:

• use Risk Triggered Commentary to help stay focussed on the task

• a strategy to be able to park thoughts by making a note of them to help you maintain concentration
• talk to your line manager or EAP scheme if you need help with an issue which is distracting you.

For more information, have a look here;

• Staying in the ‘zone’: https://www.rssb.co.uk/what-we-do/key-industry-topics/spad-good-practice-
guide/how-drivers-can-manage-spad-risk/staying-in-the-zone
• The underload toolbox: https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/improving-safety-health-and-
wellbeing/understanding-human-factors/the-underload-toolbox

7 RSSB l STEPPING UP: SPAD FOCUS GUIDANCE

 A Better,
Safer
Railway

Contact: https://customer-portal.rssb.co.uk/
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3142 5300
Twitter: @RSSB_rail
web: www.rssb.co.uk

RSSB
Floor 4, The Helicon
One South Place
London EC2M 2RB